President Barack Obama has striven to for a smooth transition into Donald Trump's administration - and he has carried the same message of unity and hope into his household, a new profile has revealed.

The president told the New Yorker in an upcoming issue he advised Malia, 18, and Sasha, 15, to accept that 'people are complicated' and to keep fighting for their values - kindness, respect and understanding.

'You should anticipate that at any given moment there's going to be flare-ups of bigotry that you may have to confront, or may be inside you and you have to vanquish,' Obama told his daughters as reports of racial incidents emerged in the days after the election.

The president also revealed he didn't start watching the returns until 10 pm on election night, while First Lady Michelle Obama went to bed right around that time, as she usually does - after deciding it wasn't worth the stress.

Barack Obama (pictured with Donald Trump during their White House meeting two days after the election) told his daughters to keep upholding their values after Trump's election

Obama, whose 90-minute White House meeting with Trump two days after the election was seen as a sign of effort to ensure a peaceful transition of power.

The president had a similar message for Sasha and Malia - that this was not the time to panic, but to accept the 'messy' side of society while still upholding the values they hold dear.

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'What I say to them is that people are complicated,' Obama told the New Yorker's David Remnick.

'Societies and cultures are really complicated. ...This is not mathematics; this is biology and chemistry. These are living organisms, and it's messy. And your job as a citizen and as a decent human being is to constantly affirm and lift up and fight for treating people with kindness and respect and understanding.

'And you should anticipate that at any given moment there's going to be flare-ups of bigotry that you may have to confront, or may be inside you and you have to vanquish.

'And it doesn't stop. ...You don't get into a fetal position about it. You don't start worrying about apocalypse. You say, OK, where are the places where I can push to keep it moving forward.'

The president tild Sasha, 15 (left) and Malia, 18 (right): 'Your job is to constantly affirm and lift up and fight for treating people with kindness and respect and understanding'

Obama told the New Yorker something about his own rise to power that, in retrospect, seems eerily similar to Trump's own ascent - reminding the magazine that he, too, was once an unlikely candidate finding success against Hillary Clinton.

'In '08, they saw me coming, but I was a guy named Barack Hussein Obama coming up against the Clinton machine, so no way!' he said.

'So they weren't focused on me, and I established a connection.

'What I'm suggesting is that the lens through which people understand politics and politicians is extraordinarily powerful.

'And Trump understands the new ecosystem, in which facts and truth don't matter. You attract attention, rouse emotions, and then move on.'

Obama wouldn't reveal exactly how he reacted when Trump pulled a shocking victory on election night.

But he did say that he didn't start watching the returns until 10 pm - in part because he doesn't watch television until that time as a general rule.

His wife, meanwhile, went to bed around 10 pm as usual, because 'she decided she didn't need the stress', the president said.

Trump's first ten days as president-elect have been marked by protests around the country, as thousands of people rallied to disavow him.

Obama told a press conference in Berlin Thursday he would not advise protesters to remain silent, adding:

'One of the great things about our democracy is it expresses itself in all sorts of ways and that includes people protesting.

'I would not advise people who feel strongly or are concerned about some of the issues that have been raised over the course of the campaign... I wouldn't advise them to be silent.'